Prostate target is missed

Prostate target is missed

Ministers have failed to meet their own targets to reduce waiting times for prostate cancer victims to see a consultant, the Government has admitted.

Labour had promised to cut the 13-week delay between a patient's visit to a GP and an appointment with a specialist to 14 days by the end of last year.

However, junior health minister Lord Hunt told the House of Lords that the deadline had been missed.

One man in 14 can expect to develop prostate cancer, with the majority of cases occurring in the South and West.

The disease is the second largest cause of male cancer deaths in the country, with the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer having trebled in the last 30 years.

Improvements in treatments and screening may also account for some of the increase as more cases are picked up by doctors.

But the need for more research was highlighted by the Daily Mail's Dying of Embarrassment campaign, which raised £1mil-lion for work on the disease.

Professor Jonathan Waxman, professor of Oncology at the Hammersmith Hospital, West London, and chairman of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said the Government had set unrealistic targets.

He said it was crucial to train more experts to become consultants in the field. 'This is really a big issue for the country, and the delay in being seen by a consultant can have very significant implications for patients,' he said.

'They can be waiting in a great deal of pain, and for example can be suffering urinary problems, which are not dealt with unless they are seen.

'The Government, which is trying to deal with the problem, has set an ambitious target. It is a long-term issue and it is important for the Government to increase the number of specialists being recruited and trained.'

Lord Hunt also announced that his department would fund a £13million 'large-scale, randomised control trial of treat-ment of localised prostate cancer' but he did not give details.

The Prostate Cancer Charity can be contacted on a confidential helpline 0845 300 8383.